The last Mile syndrome – Part IV

Although the U.K. and some parts of the Commonwealth have declared a period of mourning leading up to Elizabeth II’s funeral, many said they could not feel sorrow for the queen’s death in light of her indulgence in the plethora of wealth the royal family accumulated from colonisation and never acknowledging the atrocities behind them. Some South Africans are urging King Charles III, Elizabeth II’s successor, to return the jewels.

“We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa’s history. Britain, under the leadership of the royal family, took over control of this territory that would become South Africa in 1795 from Batavian control and took permanent control of the territory in 1806,” said Economic Freedom Fighters, a pan-Africanist political party in South Africa, in a statement.

“From that moment onwards, native people of this land have never known peace, nor have they ever enjoyed the fruits of the riches of this land, riches which were and still are utilised for the enrichment of the British royal family and those who look like them.”

What was most remarkable was that the contribution of the scholars from Cambridge University was largely anchored on the work of late Professor Edward De Bono and his innovative theories on “Lateral Thinking”. Its impact on behavioural science is truly profound :

“You and your team members can learn how to separate thinking into six clear functions and roles. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic “thinking hat”. By mentally wearing and switching “hats”, you can easily focus or redirect thoughts, the conversation, or the meeting.

Perhaps I should mention the benevolence of Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury who later became the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge University.

Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, PC, FBA, FRSL, FLSW (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of England.

Williams’s primacy was marked by speculation that the Anglican Communion (in which the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leading figure) was on the verge of fragmentation over disagreements on contemporary issues such as homosexuality and the ordination of women. Williams worked to keep all sides talking to one another. [1] Notable events during his time as Archbishop of Canterbury include the rejection by a majority of dioceses of his proposed Anglican Covenant and, in the final general synod of his tenure, his unsuccessful attempt to secure a sufficient majority for a measure to allow the appointment of women as bishops in the Church of England.

Having spent much of his earlier career as an academic at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford successively, Williams speaks three languages and reads at least nine. After standing down as archbishop, Williams took up the position of chancellor of the University of South Wales in 2014 and served as master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, between 2013 and 2020. He also delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 2013.

Justin Welby succeeded Williams as the Archbishop of Canterbury on 9 November 2012, being enthroned in March 2013. On 26 December 2012, 10 Downing Street announced Williams’s elevation to the peerage as a life peer so that he could continue to speak in the House of Lords. Following the creation of his title on 8 January and its gazetting on 11 January 2013, he was introduced to the temporal benches of the House of Lords as Baron Williams of Oystermouth on 15 January 2013, sitting as a crossbencher. He retired from the House on 31 August 2020 and from Magdalene College that autumn, returning to Abergavenny in his former diocese (Monmouthshire).

What was most remarkable was that even among the Cambridge scholars were the contrarians who insisted that the focus should be on the First Mile rather than the Last Mile.

They repeatedly quoted T. S. Eliot (1888 to 1965): “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. As one phase ends today and another begins, may there be many more beginning.”